Traveling to Vegas For Work

Who could resist getting the call that your work is paying you to go to Sin City for a week

Wow, it couldn't get much better than this. I am going to Vegas for work. Just imagine everything I will be able to see and do. The Hoover Dam, a Cirque Show, get drunk by the pool and maybe even see Carrot Top! Who could resist?

This is the first thought that goes through your head when you don't do much traveling on the corporate dime. Going to a cool place certainly you won't be required to work the whole time you're there. Right?

This is often very wrong. Here is a brief overview of my recent business trip to Vegas.

Basically I went for 3 days. I would wake up at 4am Eastern time to fly out Monday morning putting me there at noon Pacific time and not a moment to rest as I get right to work. Well, that's fine, I still have 2 more days... kind of.

At the end of Day 1, we all have a group dinner together taking us 2 more hours after the workday to bond as a team. At least dinner included the Yardhouse and their 150+ selection of draft beer. I did make it to bed by 10pm, local time, which for the record is1 am Eastern time, the time my brain is still on. Thus concluding a 20+ hour day.

Day 2 starts at 7am with Starbucks because the food courts in multi-billion dollar hotels aren't really that good. Either is Starbucks, but we will save that battle for another day. Back to work and today is a short day, ending at 6pm. And what is this? the boss man has an even bigger group dinner planned including a "special" ride to this magical surprise restaurant? Yippee!

Not yet having had a moments to myself, we meet the boss-man at The Hotel, where he has arranged a 16 person stretch hummer to pick up the team. How awesome is this? I will say it is of very little awesomeness. If I ever wanted to be in a stretch Hummer I want to do it with a famous rapper while drinking Henessey. Not with 5 suits and our small work team as we encroach on each others personal space.

And to make things more interesting I had to listen to the higher ups complain about the BP oil Spill. Yes, there is something rather ironic about very wealthy people complaining about a man made disaster which their over consumption has helped encourage. And even more so when this happens in a place like Vegas where over consumption is the norm. Remember when I said we were in a stretch Hummer?

Am I the only one who finds irony in this?

In this eating situation, you are done with work, but you aren't really done. I had to laugh at jokes and pretend to be interested in his other business deals and the status of his 2nd and 3rd houses. As if I could relate.

Back to another restaurant with OK vegas style food and 2.5 hours later I was finally done for the day and able to have a breath to myself. Almost. A coworker joins me as I go for a few complimentary beers in the hotel before bed. No gambling. No sinning. Just sleeping and beginning to question why I got so excited to go to Vegas anyway.

Day 3 and I am ready to go home. Starting just as early as the previous day and off to a 7am start we drink our coffee and tea as we sludge through a day which finishes in the mid afternoon. Time for a few drinks with the boss to go over how the event went then it's off to the airport for a 10:20pm red eye flight, putting me home at 6am Thursday morning.

While this is in no way how every corporate business trip goes for every corporate person, it is how many people do business on the road. Lots of work to be done and you have a limited time frame to do it.

Even while the Excalibur Hotel I stayed at put me on the 23rd floor, I had no real view of the action that takes place on the Strip. In fact, the best view I had was from the airport as the sun set over the south end of the strip.

As much as I love to travel I didn't feel thrilled to have gone to Vegas. In fact, I could have been anywhere in the world and have experienced just as little exposure to the local area. Conversely, This trip does do one thing for me and that is it reminds me why I love to travel the way I do. As well, it reminds me thatif one wants to see places while they travel, rather than be holed up in a hotel room, they should consider one of the hundreds of jobs that require travel.

This trip made appreciate backpacking in places where people are on my level and ultimately that is why I choose to work in jobs like the one I have; because it affords me the ability to travel the way I want with the people I want to do it with. And that is what I work for.